Christchurch: What Fell, What Stayed

We visited Christchurch today.  We are staying at my friend Carla's house for one night before we head off to Queenstown tomorrow.  We saw Carla and her family for a few days in Pohara.  I've known Carla for years in Seattle and her husband took a job down here.  It was good seeing her, as I imagined it would be.  It has been about a year since I've seen her.  It seemed as if almost no time had passed since I saw her last.  The hard part was thinking about when I might see her again.

Back to Christchurch.  They had a massive earthquake in 2011.  Carla's husband said it was one of the most violent earthquakes ever, even though it was only 6 on the Ritcher scale.  It was a shallow earthquake, near the surface, and caused a lot of damage.  Much has been cleaned up in the past few years, but I did see a few lots covered in rubble from broken down buildings.  One thing we did miss was watching the rebuilding.  We met a woman in Hanmer Springs who told us the tradesmen have two weeks off around Christmas and New Year's.  It was relatively easy for us to get around.

Carla told us about the container mall downtown.  Almost all of downtown was destroyed, including the shopping.  Several retailers created shops out of shipping containers, like the ones that come in on ships going back and forth from China.

After we visited the Container Mall, we went to the Christchurch Botanic Garden.  I love botanical gardens, from the Missouri Botanic Gardens in St. Louis, to Kew Gardens outside of London.  In Christchurch, the gardens are adjacent to downtown.  It was interesting to see and compared what stayed and what fell.

It struck me that so many trees and plants survived such a horrible earthquake.  I am sure some might have fallen, but many didn't.  Maybe they were lucky to be in the other side of the fault line, or maybe their roots kept them safe.  These trees have likely survived many previous earthquakes. Maybe like when a broken bone heals, trees might also get stronger after an injury.

As they are rebuilding, there is a sense of hope.  I was surprised and happy to see some energy into this devastated part of a town.  And this wasn't the outlying areas -- this was the heart of downtown.  Centers of business, hotels, restaurants, shopping--all gone.  Art brightens the disaster zone.  Like a bud on a flower, these works tell the world the city will bloom again.